Available tutorials:

Introduction to NEST: Simulating a single neuron

Level: beginner

One neuron example.

Neurons and simple neural networks

Level: beginner

When you have worked through this material, you will know how to:
start PyNEST
create neurons and stimulation or recording devices
query and set their parameters
connect them to each other or to devices
simulate the network
extract the data from recording devices

Populations of neurons

Level: beginner

When you have worked through this material, you will know how to:
create populations of neurons with specific parameters
set model parameters before creation
define models with customised parameters
randomise parameters after creation
make random connections between populations
set up devices to start, stop and save data to file
reset simulations

Connect two NEST simulations using MUSIC

Level: advanced

We’ll implement the simple network from the introduction to this tutorial.

Connecting networks with synapses

Level: advanced

After you have worked through this material, you will know how to:
set synapse model parameters before creation
define synapse models with customised parameters
use synapse models in connection routines
query the synapse values after connection
set synapse values during and after connection

Introduction to the MUSIC Interface

Level: advanced

Setup of System, Introduction to NEST and MUSIC, Basics of NEST, Adding MUSIC connections

MUSIC Connections in C++ and Python

Level: advanced

Let’s take a look at a pair of programs that send and receive spikes. These can be used as inputs or outputs to the NEST models we created above with no change to the code. C++ code tends to be somewhat longwinded so we only show the relevant parts here.

MUSIC with SLI

Level: advanced

We won’t discuss the code extensively as learning SLI is really outside the scope of this tutorial. The code follows the same structure as the other examples, and should be straightforward to follow. But we will give a few pointers for how to connect things with MUSIC.

Practical tips

Level: advanced

Start MUSIC using mpirun, Disable messages, Comma as decimal point, Build Autotool-enable project

Spatially structured networks

Level: advanced

When you have worked through this material you will be able to:
Create populations of neurons with specific spatial locations
Define connectivity profiles between these types of populations
Connect populations using profiles
Visualize the connectivity

The pymusic interface

Level: advanced

The interface is closely modelled on the C++ API; indeed, the steps to use it is almost exactly the same. You can mostly refer to the C++ description for explanation. Below we will only highlight the differences to the C++ API.